five wives he could have love (and the one he did)
by Elizabeth Blossom
Summary: "I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you." She smiled. "I do." (Ned/Elia, Ned/Lysa, Ned/Cersei, Ned/Ashara, Ned/Lyanna, Ned/Catelyn)


Desperately trying to get back into the writing groove in between episodes of Doctor Who. Wish me like and let me know what you think of this story!

**Elia Martell**

"She's beautiful," Ned whispered.

Elia smiled brightly and smugly. "Of course she is." With a wink, she continued. "She takes after me."

Ned laughed. It was the truth. Everything about Sansa, from her curly dark hair to her olive skin to her bright brown eyes, was Elia. "Lyanna's going to adore her," he mumbled unthinkingly. Elia winced. "So this is to be her revenge for me holding Joanna constantly after her birth. She'll never put down Sansa."

Ned grinned. "Lyanna will be better than you were." Elia mocked a face of indignation. "She'll allow us to hold her sometimes." He kissed his wife. "Only sometimes, mind you."

Elia laughed loudly and tucked some of her curly hair back behind an ear. Ned thought Elia was always beautiful, but this? Her holding Sansa like she was the most precious thing in the world was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen and Ned was glad that his father hadn't listened to his bannermen.

They had said that the Princess of Dorne was too frail, was too sickly for Rickard Stark to marry to a son, even if he was the second. Besides she might bring in "bad blood" into the family line. It had taken Brandon, Jaime, Robert, and Benjen to hold him back and to stop him from attacking Roose Bolton. Others said that she was too old, four-and-twenty to Ned's eighteen. Ned couldn't care though.

He and Elia had met at Lyanna and Jaime's wedding, and had spent the entire wedding feast talking about anything and everything. She had suddenly sat down next to him, told him that "It looks like you are the one person here who is more uncomfortable than I am, which is good because then I won't be hearing how much I need to smile from Oberyn later."

Ned had stared at her with his mouth open until Elia started laughing and told him, "Please tell me I didn't scare you. Sun's don't bite like wolves do."

"No. They burn," was all Ned could think to say. Elia smiled sharply at that. "They do indeed."

Ned had never enjoyed a wedding before Lyanna's, and he felt that those feelings came from Princess Elia Martell and the smile that could beam like the sun or stab like a spear depending on what she thought on you and your life-choices.

They had even continued talking after the bedding ceremony, walking around Casterly Rock and drinking more wine than they should have, as they mocked the Lannisters in a way that made Ned felt rebellious more than he ever had before. Though really it was Elia mocking the Lannisters with Ned laughing at everything she said, and not because of the wine.

Ned wasn't sure that their love began that night, but their friendship had.

She had written to him as soon as she got back to Dorne, telling him random things that had happened on the way back and how she had seen a wolf in the Reach with a gray pelt the same dark gray as his eyes. He had blushed so furiously and smiled so widely at that, Brandon was positive that he had gotten sick. He had written back immediately.

Six months later, the ruling Princess of Dorne had written Lord Rickard asking for a betrothal between him and Elia, they were wed five months later, and ten months after that they had Sansa.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."

**Lysa Tully**

"How are you?" he asked as he looked at their daughter. Already Sansa seemed so much like her mother with flaming auburn hair and eyes that would surely stay that bright blue. She was perfect.

"I'm good," she answered, for once not blushing. Though Ned supposed that after giving birth to his child, blushing was a little ridiculous. "She's beautiful, isn't she? She's going to be even prettier than Catelyn one day."

"Like her mother," Ned said without thinking and then Lysa did blush. Ned smiled. In truth, Ned had only met Lysa's sister and the woman formally betrothed to Brandon once at their wedding and while Catelyn Tully might draw the eye faster that her sister would, but he didn't know a thing about her. He knew that Lysa though liked lemon cakes, but preferred vanilla cakes with strawberries. That one of her teeth overlapped with another and though she was self-conscious about a fact that most people would never notice, Ned liked it. That she preferred the play of Florian and Jonquil, she liked the song of Aemon the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys better.

Ned didn't have a clue about how to say any of this because according to Lyanna, he had issue with letting people know that he wasn't judging them all the time, which Ned thought was truly unfair and told her so. She agreed before saying that his problem was talking about his feelings in general.

Ned thought those were odd words to come from someone who was married to Stannis Baratheon, but Lyanna and Stannis were just an odd couple in general. They were complete opposites, and yet somehow they had actually fallen in love.

Brandon and Benjen had been just as confused as Ned.

"Lya is going to be here in a couple days with Joanna, so be prepared for that, and Benjen sent us congratulations" he told and Lysa smiled. He didn't mention Brandon. Why would he? He didn't know where Brandon was, though Ned would bet Winterfell itself that Brandon was now a sellsword over in Essos, laughing and reveling in his freedom, Ned now the heir.

There had been talks, when everyone realized that Brandon wasn't coming back from wherever he was, about Ned and Catelyn marrying, but eventually it was decided that Ned and Lysa would marry instead. Ned himself wasn't sure why, but it hadn't really mattered to him. He had never met either Tully girl, but he was going to marry one of them according to his father. Lysa was decided on.

She had been nervous when they met, but Ned had tried his best to make her as comfortable as he could. She had been pretty, with beautiful blue eyes that were filled with kindness.

They had been married within three months of meeting each other, and she had told him she was pregnant three months after that. She had kissed him when she did so, the first time she had ever so without blushing, though she had started blushing right after she did so.

"You're not disappointed that she's not a boy, are you?" Lysa asked hesitantly and Ned was shocked. Yes, hopefully they would have a son one day, but they had only been married barely a year and this was their first child. "No," he said.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."

**Cersei Lannister**

"She looks like me," Cersei said, almost in disbelief. Ned raised his eyebrow.

"You are her mother. It stands to reason that she could look like you," he said slowly and Cersei rolled her eyes. "Don't take that tone with me. I understand why she looks like me, it's just . . . ." Cersei shook her head. "Never mind. I don't know what I was thinking."

Ned loved his wife, but half the time he wasn't sure what she was thinking either, so it relieved him to hear that she sometimes felt the same. "Lyanna can't wait to meet her," he told her instead. "She's just arrived in White Harbor with her daughters, and Oberyn's coming too."

Technically, Lyanna only had one daughter, Joanna, but she was raising Oberyn's other daughters as her own and Ned knew that he had five nieces in truth.

Cersei nodded absentminded, too taken with Sansa to really take note of what he was saying. Not that Ned could blame her. Sansa was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Ned remembered how he even ended up married to Cersei Lannister. Brandon had been dead for half a year from a hunting incident and Ned had been back from Dorne for two months before his father brought up the matter of betrothal's to Ned. Ned had wanted to scream at his father for that, but had also understood where his father was coming from with his words. He wanted to make sure that Ned was prepared to take the mantle of Winterfell if Rickard should ever be taken as suddenly as Brandon was, and that another Stark heir would be ensured if gods forbid something happened to Ned. With Benjen going to the Wall, Ned, Lyanna, and Joanna were the only Starks Winterfell had, and two of them were in Dorne and one had been born a Martell.

Rickard Stark and Hoster Tully had decided that with Brandon's death, the betrothal between their children was null and void. Ned would marry someone else, not simply Catelyn Tully in his brother's place.

After that though, there was only one other woman in the Seven Kingdoms for Ned to marry and that was Cersei Lannister.

According to Lyanna, Ned had been terrified, but Ned preferred to describe it as appropriately cautious. Lyanna didn't help from telling him everything she had ever heard about Cersei Lannister, that she was an ambitious woman that wanted to be Queen and nothing would stop her from reaching that goal.

Except a father and a betrothal to become Lady of Winterfell one day.

When she had first arrived, she seemed to view everything about the North with distaste and though Ned tried, he could seem to get her to like him nor could he get himself to like her. Somehow though, after their wedding, during her pregnancy with Sansa, they found themselves liking each other, enjoying each other's company. He wrote to Lyanna to tell her this surprising development, but her returning letter thanking him for helping her win a bet with Oberyn told him that she had been expecting it.

Ned walked over to his wife and daughter and looked at them. Sansa looked so much like her, already so perfect and precious. His eyes met Cersei's and he smiled.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."

**Ashara Dayne**

Ashara laughed and Ned couldn't help the smile breaking out onto his face. Sansa was grasping a piece of her mother's hair and wouldn't let go, though admittedly Ashara wasn't trying very hard. She seemed content to simply let her daughter do whatever she so wished already, and Ned knew deep down that out of Sansa's parents, she would be the strict one, a thought that Lyanna claimed was terrifying. Ned thought it was a relief.

Ashara looked up and smiled when she saw him standing in the doorway. "You have a daughter, my lord. If you are not happy, kindly come over here so I can draw out your death."

Ned laughed. "I'm thrilled," he told her, partly because it was the truth and partly because he was afraid of what she might do to him if he answered differently.

Ashara nodded. "Daughters are just as important as sons, and I'm not done having children so don't bother to start complaining yet. Besides, if this was Dorne, she'd be enough."

"She is enough," Ned answered honestly. "She may not be a son, and I know that every man should wish and want for sons, and I do that too, but if I just had her, I'd be fine with that."

Ashara and Sansa gave him equally bright smiles and Ned remembered what Lyanna had also told him that soon his entire world would revolve around his wife and his daughter. He had been surprised, and approving, over how careful Rodrik had been with Lyanna and Joanna, but he understood now. They were amazing.

He was still surprised that Ashara had agreed to marry him. She had written to tell him she was pregnant from the nights they had spent together in to King's Landing when Ned had visited with Robert. She had simply wanted to inform him that she was going to be raising the child in Dorne if he had no wish to be a part of his child's life. Ned had ridden down to King's Landing immediately to tell her he did.

Ned had intended to bring up the matter of marriage at some point at his time in King's Landing, but when he saw her, laughing and happy and _glowing_ as she moved through the Red Keep, the words had slipped out of his mouth and she had smiled and told him, "Of course."

He didn't even notice Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia until he heard a throat being cleared and broke Ashara and his kiss to look at the Princess raising an eyebrow and the Prince trying desperately to look like he wasn't crying. He didn't pay any more attention to the royal couple when Ashara moved slightly and he felt the bump of her stomach.

Ashara told him that she couldn't believe some could call if they have ever seen his smile.

They had gotten married that night, in a sept with Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia as witnesses. Lyanna had insisted that they do another wedding in front of a heart tree so she could bear witness to the marriage, and Ashara had wanted to do it as soon as Lyanna brought it up. Ned didn't mind. He could never mind marrying her.

Ned sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, and smiled at Sansa as she tried to grasp his hair as Ashara laughed.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."

**Lyanna Stark**

"I have a sister!" Joanna asked with wide eyes and smile, and Ned smiled back as he told her, "Yes, you do, sweetling. Her name is Sansa, and do you want to meet her?"

Joanna nodded vigorously and Ned lifted her up into his arms as they began to walk to Lyanna's rooms. Joanna could walk, but Ned liked carrying her. It stopped him from remembering that she was getting older, that soon she would need to go to King's Landing to be learn how to be Queen.

When Joanna had been born, the Queen Regent Rhaella herself with the young King Viserys and the newborn Princess Daenerys had come to Winterfell to see the only child that had been conceived because of her husband's decree. Ned and Lyanna had not expected that her guilt over it still lasted to the point where she was wanted to betroth Joanna to Viserys, a shock that they had ultimately agreed to.

Ned knocked lightly on Lyanna's door and as soon as she gave her permission, he opened the door to find her with their second daughter. Like Joanna, she looked just like Lyanna. Like Joanna, she looked just like him.

Ned tried to never think of Lyanna as his sister anymore, only as his wife. It was easier to love her like that he ever would have thought, but the guilt that he was committing something foul in the eyes of the gods could never truly leave him. Slowly though, he was beginning to reconcile his wife and his sister as one woman. He wondered if it was just as hard for Lyanna to combine him as both brother and husband.

Another part of him, one that felt even guiltier in some strange way, thought that it was easier because of Father and Brandon's deaths and Benjen now a sworn brother of the Night's Watch. There was no family around to remind him of his and Lya's connection before they were married when he couldn't bear to remember it.

He put Joanna on the bed and she quickly scrambled to sit next to her mother, who wrapped her free arm around her eldest. His wife and daughters were beautiful, and Ned adored them all so much.

Ned sat next to them and grinned when Joanna grabbed his tunic to pull him close to her, Lyanna, and Sansa. In truth, her grip and pull was weak, but Ned still made a show of falling before he put an arm around her. Joanna grinned smugly and Lyanna laughed loudly.

"It's another girl, but Sansa's your heir for now," she said. "Perhaps the next one will be Bran."

Ned nodded. Joanna's betrothal had made it so that she was never truly considered heir to Winterfell, even before Lyanna's next pregnancy was announced, but as she was considered the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, it was deemed worth it. Bran was the name that they had long ago decided to name their first son, and the name they had used to refer to Sansa during the pregnancy.

"Let's just enjoy these two for now," Lyanna continued with a smile. "I'm sure Bran can wait."

Ned smiled. Lyanna refused to let him think that a son was worth more than a daughter, and Ned had long ago learned that arguing with Lyanna was useless, especially when she made such good points.

His wife was wise and his sister was kind and it was becoming so easy to think of them as one person.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."

**Catelyn Tully**

Ned entered Catelyn's rooms carefully, trying hard not to wake her up. His free hand was gripped tightly around Jon's, who though he didn't understand why, understood that his father needed him to be quiet as they went into his step-mother's rooms to meet his baby sister for the first time. Jon had been bugging Ned from the time Sansa was born to meet her, whereas Robb was indifferent towards the new Stark despite Ned and Catelyn both trying to get him excited about her. Ned had eventually given up, remembering Brandon not really caring about Lyanna and Benjen at their birth's until they were old enough to play with, and most likely he had been the same way with Ned, though Ned himself had been obsessed with two younger siblings when they were born and wanted to be near them constantly.

Catelyn could not understand though that Robb could feel indifferent about his younger sibling when she had adored both of hers, and Lysa had adored Edmure.

Catelyn had not wanted Jon to see Sansa until a few days had passed, but Ned wanted Jon to meet Sansa as soon as possible though. He was her brother too, and they deserved to at least have the option to be as close as Jon and Robb already were, as close as he and Lyanna had been.

He made his way carefully to Sansa's crib, and picked her up gently. She cooed and Ned smiled. She was perfect, like Jon and Robb had been when they had just been born. Ned bent down in front of Jon, who stared wide-eyed at his little sister, and then jumped when Ned began to situate his arms to hold her.

"Ned?" he heard Catelyn mumbled, her voice dripping with sleep. She sat up and yawned, and then froze as she saw who else was in the room with them.

Ned winced. He probably should have taken Sansa into the hallway with Jon, but he had not wanted Catelyn to get up if, _now_, she had woken up. Catelyn needed her sleep.

Instead of getting angry or cold though like she usually did when the subject was Jon, she simply sighed. "I suppose I should not have told you no. You are good and understanding when it comes to Jon and my feelings for him, but telling you to keep him away from his sister was too much."

Ned was shocked. Catelyn rarely admitted she was wrong, though in fairness she rarely was, preferring instead to move on and not look back. He smiled though, glad in this one aspect she wasn't going to fight him.

He slowly gave Sansa to Jon, who smiled widely as he looked at his little sister as she cooed in his arms. "I think she likes me, Papa!"

Ned grinned. "Of course she does, Jon. You're her big brother and you have to protect her from everyone that might try and hurt."

Jon nodded solemnly. "I will. I promise."

A quick glance at Catelyn showed her slight smile and Ned felt a burst of hope in him about her and Jon's relationship. He didn't expect her to play mother, but perhaps she could be a sort of aunt.

Ned got, keeping an eye on his children, and sat down next to her.

"I love you," he told her. "You need to know that I love you."

She smiled. "I do."


End file.
